


Going Viral

by Deannachu



Category: Original Work
Genre: Original work - Freeform, Prompt Challenge, Writing Prompt, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2019-01-28 18:44:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12613004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deannachu/pseuds/Deannachu
Summary: Prompt: You just went viral on YouTube. Your video is the most viewed video now. But now your videos are being linked to the murders of dozens.Part of a 30 days of writing prompts challenge.





	Going Viral

**Prompt:** You just went viral on YouTube. Your video is the most viewed video now. But now your videos are being linked to the murders of dozens.

**Challenge:** To write a prompt a day for the entirety of November. 

\--

If someone had told Adelaide that she would be sitting in a police station on her 21st birthday being asked question after question about a string of murders that somehow involved  _her_ , she would have probably laughed, rolled her eyes, and told them to stop doing drugs. Yet, here she was, sitting in the cold, hard chair underneath harsh lights and the disbelieving stares of two meaty police officers. She could swear she smelled what she thought was a foul coffee and bologna breath from one of them, and... was that  _powdered sugar_ on the corner of the other one's lips? She scoffed outwardly and chuckled to herself. 

"Something funny, girl?" barked Powdered Sugar cop. His badge said "Officer Dixon" but she was going to refer to him as Powdered Sugar cop. It was much funnier. 

"You think murdering six people is  _funny_?" spat Bologna cop, or "Officer Ryan" as his badge stated. "Clearly you must feel no remorse for butchering up those teenagers because you're in here, being questioned by the police, and  _laughing._ " Adelaide moved to hold up her hands in defense, but strained against the metal chair where she was handcuffed. Jerks. 

"For the thousandth time, I did not  _murder twelve people,_ " she shouted, startling the cops into jumping about five steps back. "You people claim you have all this evidence that I'm the only murdering these teenagers; so, where is it? What is your rock solid beyond-a-reasonable-doubt  _proof_ that I'm capable of murdering somebody?" The two cops glanced at her and then at each other, both wearing an identical smirk. Adelaide knew that smirk well; it was the "I know more than you" smirk that she had to endure her entire childhood from her older brother, and then in high school from the annoying Lucas who, just barely, beat her out for valedictorian. She  _hated_ that smirk. 

Officer Powdered Sugar knocked on the door leading out of the room and someone on the other side opened it just enough to hand him a laptop.  _Oh joy,_ she thought.  _I think I know where this is going._ "Are we going to watch cat videos?" she asked lightly, keeping her eyes on the laptop. Officer Bologna opened it up and typed a little, the clicks filling the room. He spun it around after a second and there, on the screen, was Adelaide. "Oh are you guys fans of my video?"

The two officers looked at each other and sighed, sitting down on either side of her. "This video was found playing at each murder scene, along with pictures of you and other items that referenced either you or your video in some way. It, aside from the same murder weapon being used at each crime, is the only thing connecting them. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"Yeah, whoever killed those kids is a  _huge_ fan of my work." Adelaide's defense mechanism in stressful situations is humor and sarcasm, and she could see it was irritating the officers. "But since it's the only other thing connecting the murders, you think I'm the one killing them, right? Like I'd be stupid enough to commit a crime and leave a fucking calling card. You've got to do much better than that. I graduated second in my class; I'm a Criminal Justice major, for crying out loud. Rule number one of any crime is to  _not leave anything that could connect you to it,_ dumb-asses. Or did you fall asleep in your CSI classes?"

"I know you're tied to these murders one way or another, little girl-" started Officer Bologna but Adelaide had had enough. 

"I am  _not_ a little girl, you pig-headed sweat stain," she yelled back, straining against the handcuffs. "Now if that's all you think you have, clearly that's not enough to charge me with anything, so you have to let me go."

"Afraid not." The officers stood up, each making their way to the door. "We can detain you for 48 hours, which is exactly what we are going to do. But here," Officer Powdered Sugar pushed the laptop towards Adelaide and uncuffed one of her hands, "maybe watching your video on repeat will be enough to get you to confess. After all, 48 hours is a  _long_ time to sit in a room watching the same video over, and over, and over." The two officers departed and all was silent. She stared at the laptop and the video pulled up, frozen on Adelaide's laughter. 

\--

Seventy-two hours ago, Adelaide had been a normal college student. She lived in an on-campus apartment with her two best friends, Iris and Sydney. She worked part time in the school library and part time making sandwiches at a local deli place. She was in all honors courses, president of two clubs, and was dedicated to graduate top of her class here. She never did drugs, never drank, and never went to parties. She just didn't really have the interest or time to do any of that. However, Iris had talked her into coming with her and Sydney to a frat party that was being held that night. Iris was crushing really hard on one of the brothers in the house and he had invited her, Sydney, and Adelaide to go. Of course, she wouldn't take no for an answer. 

"Come on," Iris begged, literally on her knees in front of Sydney and Adelaide. The two girls looked at each other and then at their best friend who was groveling. "I don't want to go by myself. I need my wing women."

"All that's going to happen is people are going to play shitty rap music, get drunk or high, and probably break a lot of shit," Sydney responded.

"And have sex. That's always a given at these things," Adelaide added, smirking a little bit. Iris rolled her eyes and stood up. 

"Please? We don't have to stay longer than an hour. I just want to check it out, and if everything is going okay you guys can absolutely leave. I'll be fine. I just need that bit of a safety net for a little while, okay? The last frat party I went to by myself did not go well at all. I need you guys."  _Damn._ She was pulling out the doe eyes and the pout and everything to get her and Sydney to agree. It was really hard to say no to Iris. The girl stood maybe 5 feet tall on a good day, with long, curly blonde hair and blue eyes. She seemed like a dwarf compared to Sydney and Adelaide, as each girl had at least 7 inches on her, although they couldn't look more different. Adelaide had dark red hair and green eyes hidden behind what Iris called "hipster glasses" and Sydney had dark purple hair cut to about her shoulders and brown eyes. Sydney was always experimenting with hair color and styles; she could never decide what color she liked the best. 

Adelaide sighed and pulled Iris into a hug. "Fine, but  _only_ for an hour. If I see or hear something that I don't like, we are leaving. Got it?" She tried to sound stern but had to crack a smile when she saw Iris's face light up with joy. 

"Oh, THANK YOU!" she squealed, returning the hug with a hard squeeze. "I can't wait to tell Alex! He's going to be so thrilled. So what do I wear? Ooh, what about that new crop top I bought? The dark blue one with the lace? And my dark jeans! And my new boots I bought. Oh, and how am I going to do my makeup? Do I go bold, or sweet?" Iris rambled to herself as she ran to her room and slammed the door. Sydney looked and Adelaide and shook her head.

"You created a monster," she laughed.

"Yeah, but she's going to knock the pants off of Alex. Probably literally, too. I was with her when she bought that crop top; we better look out for our little Iris tonight," Adelaide responded, walking to her bedroom. She opened her closet and looked at her wardrobe, grimacing at the startling amount of t-shirts she owned. It was going to be a little bit more difficult than she thought to figure out what she was going to wear. She saw her favorite pair of shorts, light denim with a worn look to them, and threw them on her bed. She looked down and picked out a dangerous-looking pair of black heels and added them to the pile. She flipped through her hangers to find the small section of non-tshirt clothing she owned, and noticed a black crop top in the very back. She pulled it out and looked at it, not remembering buying it. There was a knock on the door and Adelaide saw Iris in the doorway.

"That's such a cute top, where did you get it?" she asked, walking in the room. Adelaide shrugged. 

"I don't really remember. Must have been a present that I forgot about."

"Well you should totally wear it tonight. I know! All three of us can wear crop tops and heels. We can match, sort of. It'd be great," Iris beamed, sprinting from the room to tell Sydney her idea. The crop top had a little bit of white detail around the bottom and the sleeves and was backless. She sighed and threw it on the bed with the shorts and heels, grabbing a towel and clean underwear and heading into the bathroom to shower. 

\--

The night itself had been pretty uneventful until about the time that Adelaide was ready to leave. She had decided that Iris was a big girl and would be safe at the party without Sydney and Adelaide hovering over her, though she  _did_ pull Alex aside and told him that if Iris got too drunk that he was to promise he would take her back to the apartment. He nodded and looked at Iris who was dancing with Sydney in the living room. Adelaide saw a look of adoration cross his face and knew that she would be in good hands tonight. 

She told Sydney she was leaving to walk back to the apartment, saying her goodbyes and heading for the door, when all of a sudden someone in a hockey mask and a machete jumped out from behind a corner, scaring the shit out of her. Her self-defense training kicked in and after the initial shock wore off she punched the guy in the face and kicked his feet out from under him, pointing the heel of her shoe at his groin. The whole party went silent until someone started laughing, which caused everyone in attendance to join in. The hockey mask came off and Adelaide saw her friend Richie clutching his nose and grunting in pain. "What the  _FUCK_ , Richie!" she yelled, rearing back to beat him some more. "You scared the hell out of me!"

"Yeah I know, that was kind of the point. I didn't know you had such a strong right hook, holy fuck," he groaned, sitting up and still clutching his nose. She took in the scene before her and couldn't help but laugh. Here was this 6'3" frat boy on the ground after getting his ass handed to him by a girl. He was going to never hear the end of it. Adelaide looked around and noticed a few people recording and silently groaned. 

"Please don't tell me this is going on YouTube," she begged. 

"Oh hell yeah it is," one of the fraternity brothers laughed. "That was the best thing I'd seen in ages, dude. You're going to go viral for sure."

"Great. Wonderful," she deadpanned. "Now I actually am leaving, unless Michael Myers is waiting for me behind the door or something."

"Nah. Even if he was, I'm sure you'd be able to kick his ass, too," the brother grinned. Adelaide rolled her eyes and flipped him off before walking out of the house into the warm night air. 

\--

Sure enough, the next day everyone on her friends list had tagged her in the video, and by the end of the day it was the most viewed video on YouTube. All of the comments were positive or funny, though of course there were a few perverted ones mixed in with the rest. Before she went to bed that night she turned on the news, which was part of her bedtime ritual, and settled into the sheets, turning the volume down low. 

"Breaking news: police are on the scene of a grisly and brutal murder. Tom, what do we know for sure?" said a concerned newswoman. 

"That's right, Diane. The police have responded to this house behind me, home to Lana and Wes Richardson and their two teenage daughters, Alexis and Brittney. It appears the two girls were having a party of some sort while their parents were out and a neighbor called 911 when she heard what she thought sounded like screaming coming from the residence. Inside, police found the brutally mutilated bodies of the two girls along with five of their friends. Tragedy has indeed struck this small town. Back to you Diane."

The next day, Adelaide discussed what she had heard with her friends, the three of them not able to clearly wrap their minds around what kind of person would do such a thing. Sydney, being the type of person who disliked discussing negative or depressing topics, quickly changed the subject. 

"So, your birthday is in two days," she grinned at Adelaide. "The big 21. Have you decided what you want to do?"

"My parents want to take me out for dinner, but after that I really don't have any plans," she responded, taking a swig out of her water bottle. Iris and Sydney looked at each other secretively. "No, you two are not throwing a party for me. You remember what happened last year, don't you?"

"So you had way too many tequila shots, tough shit." Sydney waved away her complaint. "We were thinking of going bar hopping, since you'll finally be able to get into them legally."

"Someone has to be DD, then, because I'm not going to go out without someone sober to make sure we get back home in one piece."

"That's fair. I'll ask Alex and see if he'd be willing to do that for us," chirped Iris, pulling out her phone. A few clicks and notifications later, Alex agreed to be the girls' DD for that night. Sydney jumped up from the couch where they were sitting and held out her hand. 

"Come on, ladies. Lets go find Addy a birthday outfit."

\--

Fast forward to tonight. All Adelaide wanted to do was go out with her friends, have too much to drink, probably drunkenly makeout with a cute guy at a bar, and go home to sleep off what was sure to be a hangover the next day. Her phone constantly blew up with invites from people she had briefly seen around campus, and even some who she had no idea who they were, because of that stupid video. She had seen it be played on various TV stations and websites, and people everywhere seemed to know her name. It was extremely inconvenient when she wanted to be alone with just her schoolwork because people would follow her everywhere, taking pictures and videos at all times. She just wanted to be invisible again.

The girls barely made it outside of the apartment before policemen swarmed them from every angle, guns drawn. "Adelaide Murray?" barked a policeman with a potbelly and a mildly impressive beard.

"Yes?" she asked. "Can I help you?"

"You're under arrest for the murder of twelve teenage girls. Give your purse to your friends and turn around with your hands behind your back," the officer said, moving towards her, gun still drawn. 

"Excuse me? Are you serious? I didn't murder anyone!" she yelled. She handed her purse to Iris, whose eyes were wide with disbelief. 

"Tell that to a judge," an officer with a permanent scowl said, roughly placing cuffs around her wrists. 

Fear and anger and shock flooded through her system. "Call my parents," she told Sydney calmly, being led away by the officer. "Tell them I need a lawyer. Call them  _now._ " Sydney nodded and pulled out her phone, unlocking it and dialing the number to Adelaide's father. 

Adelaide was placed in the backseat of one of the squad cars. Once inside she noticed all of the media that swarmed around her and her friends. "Adelaide, is it true that you murdered those twelve girls?" screamed one reporter before the door slammed. She could see each reporter yelling questions at her, although the glass muffled their voices and she couldn't make out any specific ones.

The whole ride to the police station, she leaned her head against the window and silently cried. Even though she knew she was innocent, she couldn't help but wonder,  _Why me?_


End file.
